Choose an agent pattern
A kaos-agents pattern decides how a turn executes. Picking the right one is most of
getting an agent to behave. The main patterns:
| Pattern | Use it when… | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Chat | a single-step question or tool use | classifies intent, responds or runs one ReAct tool loop. The simplest; what your first agent used. |
| Research | answering a question over a document corpus | retrieves relevant passages (BM25), answers with verified citations, and refuses when evidence is weak — the grounding contract. |
| Plan-execute | a complex multi-step goal | proposes a plan, executes steps, and can replan — bounded by a budget. |
| Findings | extracting structured findings across many docs | a recall-first extract → filter → synthesize pipeline with per-doc cost caps and typed refusals. |
| Router | choosing among the above per turn | classifies the request and dispatches to the right pattern. |
How to decide
Section titled “How to decide”- One question, maybe one tool? → Chat.
- Answer must cite my documents? → Research.
- A goal with several steps? → Plan-execute.
- Pull the same fields out of 100 contracts? → Findings.
- Mixed traffic? → Router.
All patterns share the same turn loop, memory, permissions, and cost accounting — they differ only in how step 4 (dispatch) runs. So switching patterns is a config change on the Agent, not a rewrite.